Formula 1 2012 preview

Hey all,
Due to recent issues (coughcough*schoolwork*cough), Shree will post his In My Opinion post sometime later. But now, I want to focus on the upcoming F1 season, which will be kicking off in Melbourne this Friday.

There have been multiple changes to the teams and drivers since last year, including Renault becoming Lotus F1 and Lotus F1 becoming Caterham.

FYI, Renault F1 was the Benetton Formula One team until 2002, the team where 7-time world champ M. Schumacher won 2 of his championships, and more famously, the team with the racing colors of a parrot. Take a look below...

Noticeable driver changes have taken place all over the grid, including at Williams, Lotus, Sahara Force India, Toro Rosso, Caterham, HRT, and Marussia. 

 The major teams that I think will be competing for the championships are: 

Red Bull Racing RB8

Red Bull's lineup stays the same as reigning double-world champ Sebastian Vettel stays with Mark Webber for yet another year. Although I respect Vettel and Webber, they're success is mainly due to Adrian Newey's excellent engineering crew, who has pulled off miracles over the last two seasons. The moment I saw the RB8,  I thought, "Damn, Newey has done it again!" mainly because, well, just look at the engineering OCDness of the car! 

Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes MP4-27

McLaren's MP4-27 is the only car in 2012 without the stepped nose that is on all the other F1 cars (and don't say Marussia doesn't have a stepped nose, because it has a broken nose; I'll explain later). So, in my mind, this is the prettiest car on the block, and I hope to see that it'll do well. Their drivers haven't changed, but I hear Lewis Hamilton is coming back "a changed and improved man". But let's see how that rivalry with Massa goes, eh? Speaking of Massa... 

Scuderia Ferrari F2012

People have been criticizing the F2012's sharply-stepped nose and unreliability in testing. The fact is though, if Ferrari can hit that right tuning in the next couple of days, especially in Australia for Practice, they'll be very quick. 

Other teams have changed their teams cars as well. Here following are some photos...: 

   Mercedes AMG-Petronas Formula One W03 

Sahara Force India VJM05

Lotus E20

I personally saw the E20 being released and thought it was funny when their site crashed.
Embarrassing.

Williams Formula One FW34

Scuderia Toro Rosso STR7

Sauber C31 

Caterham F1 CT 01 

HRT F112 

Marussia Formula One MR01

I mentioned earlier how this car has a "broken nose". I think it's broken
because it slants down in two different parts! Here's another look. 

Well, this was only a look at the F1 season, I'll give a preview of the Australian Grand Prix sooner than later! 

If Formula One made a brackets system like the NCAA made with March Madness, I'd be all over it... 

See you all soon! 

AV